


When I Kissed The Teacher

by falconeri



Series: When I Kissed the Teacher 'verse [1]
Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: College, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I feel like I should apologize to Lucy for what I'm about to put her through, Slow Burn, Undercover, University, but i love it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29629308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falconeri/pseuds/falconeri
Summary: “I joined the Academy on a whim. I knew that my parents would hate it. But I had no idea how much I would love it. Being a cop is the first thing I've ever been serious about.” (1x04)When the rookies and their TOs are sent undercover at a local university to track down who's attacking girls at the fraternity parties, Lucy Chen must revert to her party-girl college background. Tim Bradford is a stand-in professor, with Lucy in his class.
Relationships: Tim Bradford & Angela Lopez, Tim Bradford & Lucy Chen, Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Series: When I Kissed the Teacher 'verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190282
Comments: 7
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1- The Name of the Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "'You six will be working more closely with the detectives,' Grey said, instantly relieving some of the tension in the room. 
> 
> Sandoval and Norman once again stepped forward next to Grey. 'You six will all be going under cover,' Norman started. 'Your Watch Commander will brief you on your individual roles. The goal is to get as many eyes on that party as we can in addition to collecting intel from other locations on campus.'"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the product of loving Chenford, the undercover trope, and university AUs.  
> I’ve been re-watching The Rookie with my mother, who hasn’t seen it yet, and this line from 1x04 inspired this fic: “I joined the Academy on a whim. I knew that my parents would hate it. But I had no idea how much I would love it. Being a cop is the first thing I've ever been serious about.”  
> Takes place at the fictional Los Angeles University (LA U) because I like worldbuilding and don’t want to try and figure out the map of any universities presently existing in the area.  
> Narrator POV does shift, but is consistent per chapter.  
> Title and chapter titles from ABBA songs.

“And finally, there’s been a string of assaults across the campus of Los Angeles University,” Sergeant Wade Grey announced from the front of the room, “I’ll turn it over to the detectives in charge of this op.” Two detectives, a male and female pair of partners, stepped forward from the shadowy corner of the room at that announcement. Lucy, who was sitting at the front table, with the other rookies, almost wanted to roll her eyes at their theatrics. _ No wonder why Tim chose to stay on patrol _ , she thought. 

“I’m Detective Mark Sandoval and this is my partner, Detective Alicia Norman. As Sergeant Grey stated, there have been a string of sexual assaults- all female, all from the same university, but with varying majors and programs. For the entirety of fall semester, we’d been trying to pin what we think might be some ring of people who get off on this. LA U’s winter break ends in a week, we want to use that time to prepare to tackle this as soon as the spring semester starts.” 

Detective Norman took it from there, “We think that it might be a group of members of the fraternity Phi Upsilon Psi, known colloquially as ‘Phi Up,” the brunette stated, looking annoyed that she even had to be there for the briefing in the first place. “Phi Upsilon Psi is known for throwing huge parties on the weekends- as do the other fraternities. However, the only solid link we have connecting all our victims was that they reported that they had been partying at the Phi Upsilon Psi house- we think that’s the connection. Unfortunately, none of the victims have any recollection past that given that they were roofied, but across the twelve victims,” the entire room seemed to cringe in pain at that number, and there were a few hushed whispers. 

Lucy felt her hair stand on end, and became sharply reminded of the tattoo on her side.  _ That’s how that all started _ , Lucy thought, pulled back into a time she desperately tried to forget, the wound still fresh after six months. She shook her head a little to rid herself of the minor flashback, and willed her stomach to settle down. 

Norman waited for the room to return to quiet before continuing, “across the twelve victims, some descriptions were given multiple times. We matched these descriptions to known members of the fraternity, and our victims positively identified these four.”

Sandoval seamlessly took over then, “Here are our lucky contestants,” he said sarcastically, slapping a student ID photo up on the whiteboard before he continued. “First, meet Cody Steele, a junior Business major. He enjoys playing football and, evidently, assaulting women. Next,” Sandoval paused to stick another picture to the whiteboard, “Meet contestant number two, Kelly Burrows. He’s a senior Physics major who enjoys playing the tuba, and he is  _ also _ fond of assaulting women. Contestant number three up next,” another picture, “Tyler Novak, also a senior, History major. Tyler enjoys baseball as well as, you guessed it, assaulting women.” Lucy peeked at Norman, who looked like she needed a cup of coffee and a partner who was more business and less showbusiness, though she could detect an undercurrent of fondness- the same undercurrent ran through all of them with regards to their partners. “Contestant four is a gentle soul who enjoys volunteering at animal shelters and assaulting women; he’s a spoken word poet too, Joshua Haynes. Sophomore, English major.”

Norman took over, “As you can see, none of them have similar lives- the chances of them accidentally meeting on campus seems improbable, given the large student body at LA U. The only known connection between the four is that they are all members of the Phi Upsilon Psi fraternity. There’s a big party coming up a month into the new semester, and we want to be able to see and hear what happens at those parties, hopefully catch one of these bastards in the act.”

Sergeant Grey stepped forward again, “Anything the detectives need, we’ll help them with. Some of your assignments have been shifted to patrolling the campus in unmarked vehicles- we aren’t trying to spook them. If anything, the more invincible they feel, the more likely it is that they’ll make mistakes, which is bad for them, good for us. Everyone is dismissed except for the rookies and their TOs. You six come forward.” 

Nervous glances were exchanged between the TOs as they got up to move to the front of the room; their rookies already at the front of the room were exchanging their own nervous glances. It’s traditionally never good if your Watch Commander asks you to stay back after everyone else is dismissed. Though, after the few nervous glances, all six were able to school their faces to a neutral expression. 

“You six will be working more closely with the detectives,” Grey said, instantly relieving some of the tension in the room. 

Sandoval and Norman once again stepped forward next to Grey. “You six will all be going under cover,” Norman started. “Your Watch Commander will brief you on your individual roles. The goal is to get as many eyes on that party as we can in addition to collecting intel from other locations on campus.” 

“We want to be careful, so use these phones during this op. They’re pre-loaded with fake contacts, fake texts, and game apps. I hope you enjoy Angry Birds,” he said with mirth as he passed out the phones, all with different cases. Lucy figured that the cases were reflective of their undercover personas, but before she could think of a person who would want that type of phone case, Sandoval spoke up again “You also all have social media accounts that we staged to look like you’re undercover self had previously existed, the usernames and passwords will be given to you along with your personas. Call us if you have any questions, we’ll be doing a deep dive into each student’s personal history.” With that, the detectives left the room, leaving the rookies and TOs with Grey, who was smirking. Lucy internally flinched, when Grey smirked it usually meant some ill was about to befall them in terms of assignment. 

“Okay folks, you heard the detectives. I have your undercover personas right here,” he held up a folder full of other, thinner folders, “First, Harper, I know you swore off undercover work. Your cover doesn't require a new address and the works- you're safe to reside in your own home, you’re not going into deep cover,” Nolan’s TO, Nyla Harper seemed to relax a bit at that, “Actually, you’re the only one  _ not  _ going into deep cover, so you'll also act as a liason- you’ll be the more immediate eyes and ears between debriefs for the detectives. If anyone has a pressing concern that  _ doesn’t  _ merit breaking cover for, I suggest you find some way to break a dorm or something. Actually please don’t, because the city does  _ not  _ need to pay for that. The reason I said go through the dorm is because, Harper, for the next week, you’ll be Sandra, or Sandy Cobbs. She’s a new hire to Resident Life, where you’ll be able to keep an eye and ear on the dorms hopefully. Your folder will have all the information you need to know, history, personality, job description, passwords to emails, social media, and anything else you might need a password for. I know I don’t need to tell you how to do undercover work.”

Grey pivoted slightly, nodding towards Tim, Lucy’s TO. “Bradford, you’ll be Dr. Harry O'Sullivan. You’ll be filling in for a math professor, Dr. Grant, while he attends to some personal matter. He’s one of the few civilians that know this op, and that was only because we needed to commandeer his classrooms. File contains everything else,” Grey concluded as he handed Tim the folder for his undercover persona. Tim looked less than thrilled; Lucy briefly mused over why- she’d never seen him go undercover at all for more than 15 minutes, probably not even that long. Maybe he just really didn’t like undercover- after all, Tim stayed on patrol while Isabel signed up for undercover narcotics the first shot she had, she had told Lucy as much when Lucy went to drop off Narcan for her on behalf of Tim.  _ Maybe Isabel's experience turned him away from any undercover work? _

In the line of officers standing before the sergeant, Angela Lopez was next in line. Sure enough, Grey addressed her next, “Lopez, You’re another substitute professor, Dr. Maria Perez. You’ll be in the English department as a temporary substitute for a professor, Dr. Richard Greene." Angela looked like she was about to say something, probably about Wesley and wanting to be with him (though everyone close to Angela knew that it was more driven by recent events that Angela wanted to watch him after) “We’re looping Wesley into this, though given his history of employment, we thought it was best not to ask him to collect intel for us.” Angela nodded, no one needed Wesley’s soapbox monologues about police ethics. “We’ve cleared it with him already, he’ll have a cover identity to maintain yours, but he’ll actually be teaching some of the pre-law classes.” Another file was handed over to Angela, “your cover identities are both in here.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s going to love teaching ‘the next generation of lawyers,’” Angela said, looking like she was torn between laughing, rolling her eyes, and relief that she’d still be able to see him every day- after all, this op  _ was  _ going to be a long one.

Then, Grey pivoted to address the rookies at large. "Since this will be the first time any of you will be undercover for a substantial amount of time, I've tried to match your personalities with your undercover persona, but also spread out as to maximize our contact with different student groups." 

Grey shifted his eyes towards the rookies, first addressing Jackson West. “Officer West,” he commanded, and Jackson immediately stood up straighter, “You graduated top of the class in the Academy, I hear they called you ‘Officer Extra Credit.’” At that, both Lucy and Nolan snorted, knowing the truth behind that statement- though how Grey got that knowledge, Lucy did not know. Being honest with herself, she probably didn’t  _ want  _ to know- lord only knows what Grey could have dug up on her. “You’re well behaved and respectful towards authority-  _ please  _ do  _ not  _ take that as a challenge. You can prove whatever once you’re  _ out  _ of deep cover.” Lucy could hear Angela suck in air, clearly trying not to laugh at the fact that Grey knew the rookies too well. 

“With that being said, your cover is Kevin Bauer, you’re a recent transfer from,” Grey opened the file he was holding, “Easten University. You’ll be a sophomore majoring in physics. We need an in with the athletics department, so I hope you remember how to play football. Kevin is a studious, hardworking, straight A student, but is also a little uptight and not a fan of a lot of socialization. The nerd on the football team. Enjoys a good game of chess. We need you travelling in a different social circle than Officer Chen is going to, so try to get in with the athletes  _ and  _ the mathletes.”

"Yes, Sir" Jackson replied, while taking the file that was handed to him. He looked downright excited, which surprised no one. 

"Officer Chen," Grey then turned to Lucy, mirth in his eyes that Lucy knew meant he had some joke at the expense of her. "An incident involving margaritas was brought to my attention, as were other recollections of your party girl years. So why not relive them?" Grey said as Lucy forced back a groan.  _ How the hell does Grey even know about the margar- oh no, Rachel must have told Tim stories of their years together in college _ . "Your cover is Paige Lee, a freshman music and visual art double major new to college this upcoming semester. She’s a free spirit who loves a good party, and who hasn’t yet learned college isn’t all about partying- though for now, she’s a socialite who went to college for the parties, which she frequently tweets or whatever the verb form of Instagram is, about.  _ Frequently _ . Login information in your folder. And hey, a margarita incident isn’t out of the question with her personality."

Lucy didn’t quite succeed in biting back a groan and took the offered file as her fellow rookies, who were flanking her, both nearly shook from silent laughter- they knew the story, she had told it once after a hard day at the Academy over a  _ lot  _ of tequila. Though she knew her fellow rookies weren’t the ones who spilled to Grey- it had to be Tim. So, once Grey shifted his attention towards another rookie, John Nolan, she turned to look at Tim, who, sure enough, was smirking.  _ Yeah, that's definitely how Grey knew _ . She wasn't sure how to feel- mortified? She silently cursed Rachel for spilling, though she had a feeling Tim had been asking about their college years waiting for a moment like this to come along. She and her TO had come a long way since they initially met, but Tim was still her TO- and still delighted in the small torments.

"Officer Nolan," Grey began his act, "I don't think you'd make a convincing student," he paused so that everyone could laugh for a moment. Nolan took it graciously as always, something which had forever amazed and impressed Lucy. "You'll be a new hire at the library, Rusty Mason, a transplant from rural West Virginia. You're also involved in as many committees and meetings as I could cram into your schedule. You're friendly, social, and enjoy talking with people. I imagine this won't be a stretch for you." Grey handed Nolan his file as he concluded. 

“Thank you, Sir?” Nolan said hesitantly with a slight shrug, referring to the personality of his cover.

“It wasn’t a compliment.” Grey said in his normal brusque tone, though everyone knew that Nolan had somehow grown on the grumpy-by-default Adam Watch Commander. Grey then turned back to address the TOs at large.

"TOs, teach your rookies the basics of undercover work. You all have a week to prepare for the start of the semester. For that period of time, you all will have assignments that give you ample time to get to know your cover personas. Dismissed." 

Indignantly, Lucy turned to face a smirking Tim. "I'm not sure short sleeves were worth this outcome," she said, referring to the bet that sparked the relationship between her friend from college, Rachel, and Tim, mostly jokingly.

"Come on, Boot. Being a party girl again won't be so hard." 

"You don't know how exhausting it is to try to be a part of everything social," she said, a little irritated, though that wasn’t the real reason she wasn’t thrilled to be a socialite. She looked down, and willed her hands to stop shaking, the folder rustling slightly at the movement. She could feel that her shoulders were also tense, and she tried to relax to look as normal as possible. She thought she had done a good job at pretending to be okay, just joking around.

"You'll be fine, Boot," Tim said, this time in a softer tone.  _ Well, I’m not going to be very good at undercover if I can’t convince someone that I’m totally normal, completely fine. The type of person you want at your parties _ , Lucy rationalized in her thoughts once she realized Tim picked up on there being something wrong, though she supposed maybe to anyone else she would look fine, but at this point in her training, she and Tim knew each other so well that they could pick up on the little things.  _ You know me so well. Too well.  _ Lucy was once again pulled back in time, this time to a hospital bed as she first woke up after Caleb had nearly killed her. She quickly pulled herself back, though based on Tim’s look she hadn’t done that quickly enough. He looked like he was about to say something, but Lucy didn’t want to talk about what she knew he wanted to bring up.

Instead, Lucy herself decided to voice what both she and Tim knew to be the truth, but hadn’t yet been stated out loud… and maybe, just maybe, she could avoid the flashback talk in the process. "They're roofieing girls at parties, Tim," she said quietly but desperately, "someone could slip me a roofie. Last time that happened-" she cut herself off, knowing that both of them knew exactly what moment she was referring to, the longest day in both of their lives. Again, she was pulled back in time, her ribcage hurt as she relived Caleb tattooing her “day of death” on her side. The tattoo that she never actually got removed, though it was now long enough that she could opt for that, if she wanted. Once more, she found herself pulling her focus to the present- she wasn’t in a barrel, she could breathe, she wasn’t missing in some stretch of desert land, she wasn’t about to die...

"You'll be on the lookout, we can go over the alcohol safety at parties brochure from some LA U student organization. You'll be fine," Tim tried to reassure Lucy, who still looked- and felt- panicked. “C’mon Boot,” he instructed, “I was told to teach you how to work undercover, so that’s what we’re doing. I need to see Grey for a minute, though,” he said, jogging over to the Watch Commander’s office and knocking on the open door frame. Lucy watched as Tim went inside the office and talked to Grey, trying to fill her mind with any thoughts other than the ones currently plaguing her. 


	2. Chapter 1.5- SOS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’ve never felt this protective over any of my boots before, and Chen is far more competent than any of them ever were, he thought briefly... He knew he was overconcered about his rookie, but any further thoughts on the matter he quashed"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter that acts as sort of an interlude, in addition to (hopefully) providing a better look inside Tim's mind, especially when it comes to his thoughts on Lucy. Next update will be longer- I wanted this to stand alone as it's sort of an off to the side moment within the story as well. As always, chapter title comes from the name of an ABBA song.

His intentions unbeknownst to Lucy, Tim entered Grey's office with a mildly indignant look on his face and opened his mouth to start on why undercover work, namely  _ this  _ undercover op, was a bad idea for his rookie, but before he could utter a single word, Grey put his hand outwards and said "stop."

"You don't even know what-" 

"You  _ were _ about to barge into my office and demand that you and Chen be pulled off this case." Tim was once again reminded of the fact that Grey knew him all too well; as a veteran patrol officer and Grey's backup on numerous occasions, he wondered why he was even the slightest bit surprised at how well Grey could read him. 

After a terse nod of confirmation from Tim, Grey continued. “Bradford, I know you’re worried about sending your rook into a situation where she could potentially be hurt or have to relive what happened to her- look, I’m not thrilled with the idea either, especially not after watching her during that briefing.” Tim opened his mouth to start to agree and continue with his planned tirade when Grey held out his hand again, “My hands are tied, the detectives needed officers who could pass as university students, and we all know that means the rooks... Well, the younger rooks, at least.” 

Grey continued, “Tim, she can handle herself, she’s proven that repeatedly- she’s a fighter, and you  _ know  _ that she would be angry at you if she knew you had come into this office trying to pull her off an op without first consulting her. And I’m assuming you didn’t consult her, because Chen is not the type of officer I would expect to stand down and let you fight her battles.” 

Tim had to admit that the Watch Commander had a point there; if Lucy knew what he was doing, she’d be angry- at a number of things. Him fighting on behalf of her, him trying to take her off a case, and, what Tim suspected she might take the most offense to, the implication that he believed she wasn’t yet okay enough to fully return to duty, despite the fact that 6 months had passed since the incident with Caleb, since she almost died. And, despite her saying otherwise, he was still carrying the burden of pushing her in the direction of a serial killer- though that was not his intention,  _ G-d was it not his intention _ ,  _ of course it wasn't, _ he felt guilty and responsible for her near-death experience nonetheless. 

He could tell he was fighting a losing battle, but Tim Bradford finishes what he starts- “Okay, so you’re right, she’d be angry about the idea of me even having this conversation, but you said it yourself- she looked off to you during the briefing!” His volume rose slightly at that, inadvertently, as he tried to emphasize just how bad of an idea he thought this operation was for his boot. Grey had noticed that she was off, but was still willing to send her into a potentially dangerous situation- something which made Tim seethe. 

The only thing stopping him from a full-on fight with the Watch Commander was the fact that deep down, he knew Grey was right. He knew that whatever the detectives wanted, they were going to get it from the patrol officers. That’s just how things went. And he knew his rookie well- Lucy needed to prove to herself that she could do it. Him pulling her out of the op would shake her confidence and allow fear to build to a point where it would no longer be manageable, crippling her career. No, they had to stay on the case, Tim knew with resignation, gearing up for a long week ahead of them.

Not privy to the internal monologue of Tim Bradford (who wasn’t even privy to it himself- yes, he knew those things deep down, but he was still unhappy at the situation and didn’t hold back from conveying it,) all Grey heard was the rising anger with an underlying panic at Bradford’s words. Sighing, he massaged his forehead with a hand in a clear ‘this is all giving me a headache’ gesture. “Bradford!” he said in a slightly more commanding tone, then lowered his voice once Tim stopped talking and looked towards Grey for whatever he was going to say next, “I told you, my hands are tied,” he reiterated, this time enunciating his words slowly. 

Sighing, he pulled his inter-departmental phone closer to him, “Look, the best I can do is to make sure she ends up in one of your classes. Party girl reputation is typically accompanied by poor grades- you can mandate that she comes to your office hours, keep a closer eye on her. But that is  _ all _ I can do,” Grey emphasized, starting to punch in a phone number, presumably that of the detectives, to get Chen’s class schedule modified. Both knew, and didn’t particularly care in the moment, that the detectives would be unhappy with the request, seeing as the goal was to spread them out to cover as much ground as possible, but Tim trusted that Grey would find a way to spin it so the detectives would agree to place her in one of his classes.

Even the small concession brought Tim relief, though he wondered why-  _ I’ve never felt this protective over any of my boots before, and Chen is far more competent than any of them ever were,  _ he thought briefly. He remembered Angela laughing at him the first time she had heard him compliment Lucy, when the boots were suspected of stealing money from a drug bust. The sentimental memory aside, he knew he was overconcered about his rookie, but any further thoughts on the matter he quashed. Giving Grey a nod and a sincere “thank you Sir,” Tim turned around to leave his Watch Commander’s office. 

“Bradford,” Grey called after a moment, where Bradford was close to the door. After Tim turned back around, he lowered his voice, “we both know Chen is more than capable of handling herself. But you might want to have a talk with her about the numerous flashbacks she had during that briefing.” 

Tim silently cursed under his breath- when Grey said Lucy was acting off during the briefing, he hoped Grey thought that she was just a little distracted, a little spacey- that didn’t pick up on the full story. His boot was in a rough place mentally, and they were about to throw her into the deep end of deep cover, and he had no way of making sure she stayed safe.  _ You don’t know where she is at night, if she’s safe- this isn’t much different, especially since you’ll still see her for probably at least a few minutes every day,  _ he reminded himself, trying to conveniently ignore the fact that he knew she was safe at nights regardless of his absence; knew she was safe living with West, who he had grown to trust.

“I’ll give you light assignments; go take her wherever- to your house, even, I don’t give a damn where you go but you need to work through this with her, as much as you can. We can’t stop Chen’s involvement in this op, but we can at least try to make sure she goes undercover in the right headspace.”

Nodding again, Tim once more genuinely thanked his Watch Commander before going off in search of his boot. 

He was not prepared for what he would find- or, more accurately, what he wouldn’t find. 

His boot was missing. 


End file.
